Gospel for Sunday, July 21: Mark 6:30-34
XVI Sunday Year B
30 The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all that they had done and taught. 31 And he said to them, “Come aside to a lonely place and rest a while.” For there were many crowds coming and going, and they no longer even had time to eat. 32 So they set out in the boat to a lonely place on the side.
33 Many, however, saw them depart and understood, and from all the towns they began to flock there on foot and went ahead of them. 34 As they disembarked, he saw many crowds and was moved by them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he set about teaching them many things.Mk 6:30-34
Care sorelle e fratelli della Misericordie, sono Carlo Miglietta, medico, biblista, laico, marito, padre e nonno (www.buonabibbiaatutti.it). Anche oggi condivido con voi un breve pensiero di meditazione sul Vangelo, con speciale riferimento al tema della misericordia.
The disciples’ return (6:30-32)
v. 30: – The Apostles return to Jesus, gather around him and report to him the outcome of their mission. Jesus is the reference point of our lives, Jesus is the center of the Church, Jesus is the one to whom we must continually report. The important thing is to be with Jesus-Mark tells us that the disciple is the one who is with Jesus. We must be with the Lord, we must have an intense life with him. Faith is not an ideology, faith is not a set of notions, faith is not a set of concepts, faith is our love with the Lord: if we love the Lord, if we are warm of Him, heart to heart with Him, then we are Christians.
– The Apostles “do and teach”: these are the two verbs that are used to describe Jesus’ action: “do” (“Jesus did”; 3:8) and “teach”: the verb “teach” is used in Mark 21 times.
v. 31: – The disciples gather around Jesus and what does Jesus do? He sends them on vacation: this is very beautiful. The importance of breaks, of detachments, of solitary places is emphasized. The importance of contemplation, of retreating, of making desert, of being, in a society like the present one where what counts is production, is the multiplication of activity, the multiplication of meetings, and those who are no longer able to do are marginalized. The sick, the elderly, are sidelined, because they no longer produce-Jesus reminds us that the believer is the man of being, and not of doing.
This is a most important invitation, especially for the Church today, a Church that often has the temptation of managerialism to better proclaim the Kingdom. But this is not Christianity: to proclaim Christ better we pray more, we stay more with him, we listen to his Word, because his Word, Mark told us in the booklet of parables (Mark 4:1-34), is a seed that grows by itself, whether we water it or not. So we must always be careful not to indulge in the power of this world, not to think like the pagans: the Christian bases his preaching on the folly of the cross, “scandal to the Jews, foolishness to the Gentiles” (1 Cor. 1:17-31), not on the power of men. Paul insists that God took pleasure in choosing what to the world is foolish, garbage, to make it the instrument of his evangelization (1 Cor 1:18-25).
St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus is the patron saint of missions, and she died of consumption at the age of 24, without ever leaving her cell as a cloistered nun, and she is the greatest missionary, along with St. Francis Xavier, who instead traveled all over the world, and died on an island in China.
This passage from Mark gives us pause for thought: the most important thing is prayer, it is the inherent power of the Word, the “exousìa” and “dynamis,” the authority and power of the Word of God that alone brings forth the Kingdom, not our trivial efforts.
v. 32: – The disciples have to get into the boat to get away from the crowd (as Jesus had done in ch 3), they have no time to eat (the same was said about Jesus in ch 3:20), they retreat to a deserted place (as Jesus had done in ch1).
What does this mean? The Christian is “alter Christus,” “another Christ”: following Christ is imitation of Christ. Christ is our model: we are to work like Jesus, we are to teach like Jesus, we are to live like Jesus.
Others looking at us must say, “Luigi, Paolo, Beppe, Carlo, Marilena, Marina, they are other Jesus,” and on our part we must model our lives on Jesus’ life. When we are in trial, when we are in temptation, we must say, “How would Jesus behave in my place?” When I have to make daily life choices, the only question I have to submit to is this, “The Lord in my place would choose what?” The disciple imitates the Lord. Jesus is our model. Sometimes in life we have difficulties: then let us remember that we have this model, who is Christ, the surest point of reference.
Jesus is moved (6:33-34)
The crowd moves with impressive speed: the disciples with Jesus cross the lake in a boat, and the crowd, on the other hand, which runs and goes all the way around the lake, arrives first. What does this speed of the crowd mean? It is the hurry of those rushing toward the eschatological banquet, laid out by Wisdom, of those who hunger and thirst for the Word of God.
v. 34: – For Luke and John the miracle takes place on the east bank, at Bethsaida; for Mark it takes place on the west bank: in fact in v. 45 he will send his own to Bethsaida, on the other bank.
– Jesus “saw much crowds and was moved (esplanchnìsthe).” In the face of any infirmity or need, Jesus “is moved,” “feels compassion.” These are very strong terms that we find in the Gospels to express the Lord’s feelings when faced with the leper: “moved with compassion
(splanchnisthèis), he stretched out his hand” (Mk. 1:41); to the leaderless and hungry crowds, “I feel compassion (splanchnìzomai) for this crowd, because … they have no food” (Mk. 8:2); to people who can’t take it anymore: “Seeing the crowds he felt compassion (esplanchnìsthe) for them because they were tired and exhausted” (Mt. 9:36); to the sick: “He felt compassion (esplanchnìsthe) for them and healed their sick” (Mt. 14:14); to the widow of Naim: “The Lord had compassion (esplanchnìsthe) on her and said to her: “Do not weep”” (Lk 7:13)… The verb splanchnìzomai is always used, indicating visceral commotion, translating the Hebrew rehamin, which properly expresses the bowels, the seat of emotions, our “heart”: it is a plural form of réhèm, the maternal breast, the female womb: it is the trembling of a mother for her children, it is a most intense emotion.
II our God is not the motionless engine of Aristotle, our God is a God who suffers, is a God who weeps, is a God who is moved, when he sees the suffering of men. He is the God who is truly Love, he is the God who participates in the afflictions of men, and takes on their pain: this is the great mystery of the Cross presented to us by Mark.
– “He had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd.” Throughout the Old Testament, God himself is the Shepherd of Israel. Jesus is God the Shepherd who comes for the peace of his People, and the Shepherd Messiah, he is the Model Shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep (Jn. 10), solicitous even for the sheep that are not of his fold, ready to search for the lost sheep. Here God expresses his merciful pastorality with the gift first of the Word and then of food.
– “He set about teaching them many things”: a catechesis is necessary first to understand the mystery of the Bread that will be offered in the following passage.
Buona Misericordia a tutti!
Chi volesse leggere un’esegesi più completa del testo, o qualche approfondimento, me lo chieda a migliettacarlo@gmail.com .